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The paper presents an alternative theoretical framework to deliver a historical account of the formation of public distribution system (PDS) in India as a wartime food rationing system under colonial rule. It is argued that the origins of food rationing in India can be traced to the historical coagulation of class and non-class effects/struggles arising from colonial-era agrarian class structure, including differential British policy toward the English and Indian poor populations respectively, its response to the agrarian and food crises and the social movements to recognize food security as social need. It follows that the public policy of PDS is not a mere benevolent gesture but the result of contestation and conflict over class and need spaces that make the relation of the state to PDS contingent. Our analysis shows that class matters in explaining PDS. Class struggles and needs struggles spanning the triad of production, distribution and redistribution shape the history and constitution of PDS.

Understanding food rationing in colonial India: a prelude to the formation of public distribution system